The Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has decried the poor manner of record-keeping in the country’s public institutions.

Unlike what prevails in the USA and other developed countries, he said in Ghana there is a disconnect between the executive as a political entity and the public service which ought to support the executive.

Speaking to host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah Wednesday, Dr Tony Aidoo said public institutions do not appreciate the essence of urgency in gathering data “at all”.

“Record-keeping has been the most disturbing, and it’s been the bane of our public administration system.”

He said the situation is so deplorable to the extent that “simple things” like staff data, staff numbers, it “takes a whole year to get” them.

Further, Dr Aidoo stated: “I constructed this whole system – a web-based ICT driven system of monitoring and evaluation – on the belief and expectation that for more than 15 years we have had in the system at every MDA an entity called Policy Programme, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (PPMED), and therefore they should have records, [but] no.”

He recounted his ordeal with the Attorney General’s Department: “The then Attorney General and myself called the Director of Public Prosecution; give me the data, I have already created the template for cases in court so that we can create a monitoring tracking system: a cause list; the respective attorneys; the presiding judge; the nature of dispute; the times during which those cases have been adjourned; reasons why they have been adjourned, up till now [the information has not been provided]… now how do you judge whether justice is being delivered because they say justice delayed is justice denied?”

He said the system is not political in nature and called on Ghanaians to desist from politicizing his office because what is being done will benefit successive governments.

Nevertheless, he was excited that for about two years in office, his outfit has created a databank, created a software to capture and store data collected, and created a system of monitoring and evaluation and therefore “we have the basic foundation of good public administration, a record-keeping system” essential in a modernized system of managing public administration.